This is my contribution to the 'Great re-write write-off' hosted by
Scmrak. Let us all give him a big hand for being so inventive! You should also
go and read the others, if you want high-quality reviews. So after you're trough with this, visit these people:
* 1truluv
* adjensen
* arada392
* bermudabum
* bmcnichol
* cartman_2k
* ChrisJarmick
* colldy
* ed_grover
* eplovejoy
* fallyn96
* jankp
* jcvsmom
* Jo.com
* joubert
* korova
* lynnzop
* machkick
* magenta321
* msmorvay
* naphtalia
* nfp
* proeditor
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* scmrak
* sloucho
* social14
* tinasamuels
Sorry I am so late, but my computer broke down.
Ever since last year I have had an obsession. It has been really freaky. I
never though a game would affect me the way this ones does. "The Sims" gets
you spellbound from the very first second. And most people agree with me..Why? I'm going closer into what makes this game so great!
WHAT'S THE GAME ABOUT?
In "The Sims" you get to control the life of "sims" (simulated people). You can choose what they should do, and when. If you want your sim to be a real losers; staying at home all the time, just watching TV, eating and sleeping,
or you could make them real sucessful; having a well paid job, working out, painting and so on.. All in all you can choose how they are going to be.
MY SIMS
I've controlled a whole bunch of families since I got the game last year. Some
of the families have been more fun than others.. I find that having a couple
is much more fun than having a "family" consisting of two parents and two
children. I think I've had more than a couple of families with children. I have to admit, I'm a coward.. I use cheat codes. I simply hate having to have a small house with almost no nice furniture.
Most of the time my family consists of a woman and a man; both unemployed just hanging around in a huge house with at least 1 pool. I let them work out, swim, paint, play the piano and do everything they can possibly do to score points. (points that are important for working) When I have gotten as many points as possible, I contact a lot of other people from all over the neighborhood, and become friends with them. When I have at least 6-7 friends, I let them get work. Almost immediately they get promoted, over and over again, until they've gotten the highest salary.
And so I'm finished with that family. Goal achieved.
GRAPHICS
Maxis are well known for good graphics. If you've played games like Sim City 3000, you've seen that it looks pretty realistic. You can zoom in on every object, and you can f.ex see water running out of the tap, or see the fishes
swimming around in the aquarium. There are put a lot of details into the people as well. But still, there is something missing in these graphics. A whole lot of
objects just stand there, and do nothing, even though they do it in the real life. F.ex, you can't see the Sims painting. Well, you can see the brush moving, but you can't see the painting. And then all of a sudden, the picture
appears! Now what's that about? Often the sims read books. But have you noticed that when they are about to
put them away, the disappear?! Even if they're far from the bookshelf. The graphics tend to be a bit "synthetic" at times.
SOUNDS
This is amazing. If you've listened to them, you've probably heard that they are incredibly realistic. You can hear the water being tapped, the people walking around in the house, talking (in a very weird language though),
opening and closing the doors, making food or if there's a fire.You can even hear the paint on the brush. In fact, you can hear almost everything there is to hear.. This is how the sound on every game should be. There are also some very nice tunes. When you are building their house, you'll
hear some very nice classical music, and when you're playing, some nice background tunes tend to pop up. If you want, you can even add your own mp3'z, and they'll play it.
They can even dance to it. It's funny, if you f.ex add a ballad, in the "rock" folder.. It's hilarious to see them shake their a$$ around on the floor to a ballad.
Maxis has done a very nice job with this. Too bad that not all games have such great sounds and music.
GAMEPLAY
As in Maxis previous games, the gameplay is great. It is just so much fun playing! I promise you, that from the very first moment you play this game, you'll be hooked.
But I'm not saying that it's perfect, because it's not.
If you play it too long at a time, you'll get extremely tired of it. It can get boring watching your sims do the same things over and over again. I
think there is very little variation in what the sims are able to do. The game would have been close to perfect if the sims had been able to do more things.
We all agree that doing the same thing over and over again makes us tired of it, right?
Let's hope that Maxis fix this if they decide to have a sequel to the sims. (I'm not talking about "Livin' large" and "Millenium" and "House Party".)
PROS AND CONS
(I may repeat what I've said earlier in the review here)
+ A whole lot of fun to play
- May be a bit "synthetic at times
+ Pretty good graphics
+ Excellent sounds
- Tiresome to do the same things over and over again
+ It's a Maxis game!
- Few career paths to choose from (fixed in "livin' large)
+ Play your own music
+ Exciting to see your sims develop
- No love making? (nah, just kidding)
- Tends to slow down if you build a large house
+ A lot of objects
+ They have feelings just like normal people
+ Cat fights! Oh-la-la
- They have to eat like every 3 minutes
- And have a shower and go to the toilet too
+ They can change clothes
- The children are boring, and they can't grow up!
+ The babies have gotten on my nerves
I could go on forever with "pros and cons", but I choose to leave it like this.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
If I haven't convinced you yet, I don't know what will. This game is truly one of the best games that has ever been released. And now it's on sale almost everywhere, so why don't you go out and get your own copy? I don't think you'll be sorry!
P.S I don't think that kids under 7 will understand any of this.
Now, this is a re-write write-off, so I guess I have to include my old
opinion. It was so stupid and bad written that I can't explain it. It got a
whole lot of Helpful's and even some Somewhat Helpfuls. So, therefore I
decided to re-write it. I don't want any Helpful reviews! =)
The sims is the best game ever
by | Apr 20 '00 (Updated Apr 21 '00)
Pros: Yum! Yum! Gimme som'!
Cons: Control your sims in this delightful game
Recommended: Yes
I bought this game last Thursday, 13. April 2000. I bought it because I have
every other Sim game, and I love them all. So, after getting home after a night on town, I sat down and installed it. At first I found this hard, I installed it right, but when I got in on the screen where you can choose what house you want to go to, there wasn't any houses there! What is disaster! I restarted it over and over again, but it didn't work. So I
installed it again, but it didn't work now either. So, I contacted Electronic Arts, and I told them my problem. They said that I could just go to the store
where I bought it and get a new game. I already had a negative attitude to this game.
You are probably wondering about what Sims are? Well, Sims are fictional human beings, they are the humans on the game. And they look incredibly realistic as
well ;) The best part is that if you want, you can clone your own family and house by making the family like you want and the house exactly like you want. Only your imagination can stop you here. The game keeps you going for hours every day, it is so much fun that you can't
stop playing it... (I became addicted to it) There are so many things to do, and you are going to feel like you have to play it a little bit more, so yes.. you will get addicted. If you buy it, and you do, just think of that you can play this whenever you want. I told myself that, and I wasn't addicted, but I still play it a little bit more than I probably should.. It is so fun that you can't let go.
But this changed when the game finally worked. I was charmed from the first
moment. This is the best Sim game ever! Taking part in Sims lives. It is brilliant! Everything about this game is! So here is my rate board:
Graphics: Wonderful and very realistic, nothing to complain about here. I give it 96/100 %
Sounds: Wonderful, and very realistic, once again! You can hear them bathing, reading the newspaper! I give it 98/100 %
Mastery: Mastery? C'mon! This is a Maxis game! If you want a small house with
few people, you make it simple for yourself, but if you want it to be very
hard, just get yourself a huge house, with many people. (More people make it
harder to have full control over your Sims) I give it 95/100 %
Lifespan: You can play this game until you die! You will never get tired of a Maxis game, you can go on forever, and there are numerous things to do in this game. I give it 99/100 %.
Total: THE BEST GAME EVER! I GIVE IT: 96/100 %
Is there anything more to say about this game? I have at least said all that I know about this game. This game is wonderful, and … I think that it is best if you try this game yourself, it is to good to explain.
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